Emma Thompson's grandmother was repeatedly raped by her employer and raised his child as her own, the actress revealed yesterday.

She told how during the First World War her father's mother, Annie Jackson, worked as a maid for a couple who could not have children.

As part of what she described as a 'strange sort of experiment in surrogate motherhood', the master of the house would wait until his wife was away and climb into the servants' attic room to force himself on the young woman.

Eventually, Miss Jackson discovered she was expecting a
child, which her employer, a haberdasher in Hackney, East London, and
his wife planned to bring up as their own.

But she managed to flee back to her own family to have a son -
who grew up to be Miss Thompson's uncle Fred. He later served in the
RAF and died around ten years ago.

Miss Thompson, 50, has previously cited her grandmother's
domestic service as an inspiration when playing servants herself - in
films such as Nanny McPhee and The Remains Of The Day.

But appearing on Andrew Marr's BBC1 show yesterday she revealed the brutality Miss Jackson had suffered.

She said: 'My gran's story is fascinating, because she went into service when she was 12, and was used in this strange sort of experimentation, as it were, in early surrogate motherhood because she was in fact raped by her employer.'

She said of the man's wife: 'She was afraid of the Zeppelins and
she would go and stay away, and the husband would make his way up into
my grandmother's attic room and have his evil way with her.'

Emma suffered from depression after splitting from Kenneth Branagh in 1995

It was said that the man and wife, who knew what was going on,
wanted all their maids to have children and then to keep the babies for
themselves.

The family later learned that the haberdasher had sex with three other maids, all of whom had his children.

The double Oscar-winner said: 'They were trying to have a child
using a surrogate mother, but obviously in a very unsavoury and
damaging way.'

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She said her pregnant grandmother turned for help to her
family who welcomed her back, ignoring the pleas of the
haberdasher and his wife who begged to keep the baby. Miss
Jackson went on to wed George Thompson in 1927 and to have a son Eric -
Miss Thompson's father.

Miss Thompson also appeared on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
yesterday, where she spoke of her depression as her marriage to actor
Kenneth Branagh broke down in the mid-1990s.

Emma credits husband Greg Wise for 'saving' her

She said: 'I don't think I did stay sane. I should have sought professional help. Divorce. Ghastly, painful business.'

She recalled sitting around in an old black dressing gown
Branagh had left behind and at one point 'wasn't really changing my
clothes at home'.

Miss Thompson said adapting Sense and Sensibility after the
spilt saved her from going under. She met her future husband, actor
Greg Wise, on the set.

She told presenter Kirsty Young: 'Work saved me, and Greg saved me. He picked up the pieces and put them together again.'

She also discussed her problems conceiving. She and Mr Wise have
a daughter, Gaia, ten, and an adopted son Tindyebwa Agaba, 22, from
Rwanda.